this is lindsay, kelli's sweetest niece. i am finding it difficult to express how amazing my aunt was to people who were not fortunate enough to have known her, so i thought i might reach out to everyone who was so lucky.
today was the first time i have done dishes since thursday, and surprisingly, i only had two crying outbursts. the initial shock has started to wear off, and i have been overwhelmed with grief thinking about how much better my aunt made my life. doesn't that seem a little ridiculous? every member of our family did an amazing job trying to ensure lauren and i were happy throughout tough times, and aunt kelli always tried to make sure we knew how much we meant to her. knowing her, i am sure she would want us to celebrate her life with fun stories about all of her zany adventures and reminisce about how happy she made us.
i hope she knew how much i loved and appreciated her, even if i still have a collection of all the thank you cards i wrote for her over the years, still in their envelopes, waiting to be sent to conifer. from the silly things that she would send to us, or the times she would meet up with us at the denver airport during our layovers just to take us to lunch and see us for an hours time, she really showed us unconditional love that i can't help but feel i took for granted.
i feel comforted knowing that she left us peacefully and unaware of the pain that we are all feeling at this time, because that would have been unbearable for her. she taught me how to be strong, and, if anything, i believe in the strength of our family. i hope that we think less about what we wish we might have said or done, and that we focus more about how she would have wanted us to enjoy her memory and enjoy and comfort each other.
i am trying to consolidate pictures and memories of her so we can all revel in how wonderful she was (just as she would have wanted). if you have any fond memories, which i am sure most of us do, please comment about them here.
3 comments:
Awesome tribute to Kelli! Hope everyone will also join in and contribute. She was very special to all of us.
Love,
Ma
Aunt Kat has some pictures she will add to this tribute. Hope others will also do the same---everyone faces their grief in a different way---this is consoling me---thanks LJ.
Ma
Thanks for this idea Lindsay. I have some pics I will send Kat tomorrow.
Kelli came to visit several years ago. You all know just how onery she was at times. I live in a diverse neighborhood and we were on the porch with my grandchildren. The ice cream truck comes down the street and Kelli offers to buy ice cream for Hayli. As she walks back to the porch she is smiling really big, and announces she paid double the price so the driver would get a nice tip. Ever since then we have to hide in the house and shut the door, because he sits outside and plays his music waiting for us to come out. Kelli would be laughing her head off when I would call her everytime he was sitting outside.
I miss her so much.
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